What tense should I use in git commit message?

So far I was mostly using the past tense since it looks natural to me but the git best practices suggest us to use imperative sentence.

Example: 

My old git message:
Added IDF commands into CMake editor

New git message:
Add IDF commands into CMake editor

Follow this thread for more discussion on this:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3580013/should-i-use-past-or-present-tense-in-git-commit-messages

Template for git commit messages

Good commit messages always makes a difference!!!

Following is the template I generally refer to.


FEATURE/BUGFIX/ENHANCEMENT: KonyOne Studio - <Module name> - <short problem/module description>

<Detailed description of feature/solution description/enhancement comments>

<Fix: #JSP1234>

Reviewed By :  <reviewer name>


Example for Feature:

FEATURE: KonyOne Studio - Sky Data Explorer - Implemented model classes for sky explorer

Provided the offline support capabilities to work offline.

Reviewed by: Rakesh 


Example for BugFix:

BUGFIX: KonyOne Studio - Java Script Module - Heap memory issues with huge number of files.

Java script listener is modified..etc,..

Fix: #JSP12345


Example for Enhancement:

ENHANCEMENT: KonyOne Studio - Java Script Module - code clean for java script model

Unnecessary code has been removed in java script module.

Reviewed by: Rakesh 


Points to be considered:

• Topic description (first line)
•  72 characters max for each line.
•  Give space for title and body
•  Use present tense.(Generally git uses the same for merge/rebase)

Why 72 characters ??
git log doesn’t do any special special wrapping of the commit messages. 

On an 80 column terminal, if we subtract 4 columns for the indent on the left and 4 more for symmetry on the right, we’re left with 72 columns.


Good commit messages serve at least three important purposes:

• To speed up the reviewing process.
• To help us write a good release note.
• To help the future maintainers (it could be you!), say five years into the future, to find out why a particular change was made to the code or why a specific feature was added.